Students are often viewed in terms of summative assessment and proficiency, that is, measuring their proficiency at the end of an instructional unit and comparing it to a benchmark, for instance using a standardized test after the material has been taught. Summative assessment seeks to monitor educational outcomes, often for purposes of external accountability. In practice this is often tantamount to sending numerous individuals separately on long journeys to a distant destination and not checking whether any of them are heading in the right direction until the day they are supposed to arrive at the destination. Only at the end of such a process does one discover that some travelers are off-track, heading in the wrong direction, or lost. Summative assessment, such as state-mandated tests, exams, quizzes, and even homework simply do not contribute to classroom instruction that helps determine in real-time the next learning steps of individual students.
Formative assessment is in theory an improvement on summative assessment. Formative assessment may include a range of formal and informal assessment procedures employed by teachers during the learning process to modify teaching and learning activities to improve student attainment. It typically involves qualitative feedback (rather than scores) for both student and teacher that focuses on the details of content and performance; in other words gathering feedback from students to guide improvement in the ongoing teaching and learning experience. Teachers attempt to apply formative techniques by reviewing assignments before tests, and utilizing pop quizzes, worksheets, journals, and the like, but teachers typically review these later, not in real-time. In practice, these techniques fail to approach the ideal of truly formative assessment, due in large part to ineffective, incomplete, and untimely communication between teachers and students.
What is needed is a tool to help teachers and students achieve the full potential of formative assessment by facilitating real-time content engagement that helps determine in real-time the appropriate next learning steps of students.